Daniel Randolph Deal is a Southern aristocrat, having the required bloodline, but little of the nobility. A man resistant to the folly of ethics, he prefers a selective, self-indulgent morality. He is a confessed hedonist, albeit responsibly so.

Attending first year law school at Wake Forest, Dan encounters Evelyn Daiches and a relationship ensues-a relationship that exceeds his original intentions. He finds her family provincial and using this as justification, with additional prodding from his cousin Ramona, spurns her. Dan immediately takes up with a chestnut-haired beauty, Audrey Robinson, another who is naïve about his philandering and self-absorption. Others are not so blind, however.

Jason Manetti, the son of a wealthy contractor, perceives Dan clearly enough, possibly because they're so similar. Jason imagines such behavior to be harmless, excepting when it comes to Evelyn. She was his conquest first, and so rightfully 'belonged' to him.

It's nothing more than bravado and Dan understands this, though little else, while lovers come and go. Uncertain truths about love and honor gradually surface, each forming a fuller, clearer tableau of Daniel Randolph Deal and his station as The New Southern Gentleman.